These costs can do serious damage to your long term financial health because they silently drain your bank account every single month. They're even subject to regular rate hikes to maximize profits for your service provider, often outpacing the rate of inflation.

Knowing that, I try to review my service costs regularly and keep them as low as I can while not depriving myself of what I really need. Now that I have a home office, I need top speed and rock solid internet for example. I also need reliable cell phones with lots of minutes and data - whereas I used to be able to get by without that in years past.

Here's a breakdown of my current services for my household of 2 adults and 2 children - all prices include taxes and fees.

Watching at Home

When I first published this guide more than 5 years ago - internet TV in Canada was a primitive beast...

Canadian television networks were just starting to put full episodes online and it was only for the purpose of their cable or satellite subscribers to be able to catch up on recent shows they missed. The stream quality was often poor and laggy and few people actually knew the content existed.

Those that did know usually watched hunched over their laptops - not from the comfort of their couches using a remote control.

Times have changed.

There are now more than 30 Canadian networks (listed below) streaming full episodes of their shows online using top quality media players. Many of them even have mobile apps for viewing on your phone or tablet.

The best part is it is all free - supported by far fewer commercials that you have the "privilege" of paying to watch with cable or satellite.

When you're done reading this guide - you should be ready to cut the cord yourself. You'll know exactly where to go to get full TV episodes free and legally along with all the tools and equipment you need to make your internet TV viewing experience a pleasant one.

Can I Really Get TV For Free?

About 2 years ago, shortly after Netflix was launched in Canada, my good blogging friend Simon from Sustainable Personal Finance proclaimed confidently to the world that Netflix in Canada Sucked after trying out the service for a short while. Conversely, I have been a subscriber to the service paying the $7.99 a month faithfully almost since the service launched. It can’t suck that much to have me be a customer this long, can it?

So, Does It Really Suck?

At first, I was almost inclined to agree with Simon because the Netflix Canada selection was severely limited and nowhere near the calibre of movies and TV series that Netflix USA had. Not only that, but there was also no way to efficiently browse their entire library and save titles you were interested in watching when you did happen come across a good one. The movies displayed on the front page when you log in were always changing so it was easy to lose track of something you wanted to watch and never find it again. Fortunately, things did improve quite dramatically over time and there was just enough good stuff to keep me interested and stay on as a subscriber.

Did It Have Anything Going For It At Launch?

As a follow up to the new how to save money on TV section, I’ve now written a complete guide free internet TV in Canada. You will find a collection of links to over 30 Canadian television network sites that stream full length episodes of almost any show you could want, pros and cons of internet TV, links to equipment you will need to watch internet TV on your big screen, and much more! Here is an excerpt from the beginning of the guide: Keep reading » about A Canadian Guide To Free Internet TV

The TV is the centerpiece of the Canadian family’s living room and even with the increasing domination of the internet, people still look to their television as their primary source of entertainment. Spending a lot of money on cable, satellite, or fiber optic television is very common thing in Canada with many people having monthly bills approaching $100. Of course, this is very expensive, particularly if you end up with a busy life and don’t have much time to turn the TV on and make use of the service you are paying so dearly for.

Want to get access to American Netflix, Hulu, and American TV Networks?

The personal video recorder (PVR) was a great invention that allows people to take control of their TV again so they don’t have to conform to a schedule of when their favourite shows are being aired and stop worrying about other life events interfering with their television watching. Unfortunately, PVRs are also incredibly expensive too and just serve to increase the overall cost of TV viewing even more. There must be a better way, right? This guide will present a bunch of different ways you can cut down on your TV entertainment costs and maybe even eliminate them entirely with a little help from legal internet TV.

Do you ever think of how much the many services you use every day are costing you? When you add up the costs for a home phone, cable TV, cell phones, high speed internet, and anything else you might be signed up for, it can amount to a lot of money! And they are the worst kind of expenses too, monthly recurring payments.

When you first look at price tag of these services, it doesn’t seem like all that much because the total cost is split up into small monthly payments that appear manageable. However, if you add up the total cost for the year or even your lifetime you can see that these seemingly small costs are bleeding you dry. How is that people can afford to pay $100 a month after taxes and fees for an iPhone with a decent number of minutes and lots of data? That’s an astonishing $1200 a year or $12,000 over a ten year period! When you think about it, you might even be able to buy a car for $12,000 that would last you those same ten years. Isn’t that ridiculous? And that’s just for one service, most people have several!